Holisol Logistics bets big on booming e-commerce market in India

NEW DELHI: Buoyed by increasing popularity of online shopping in India, supply chain and logistics solutions provider Holisol Logistics expects its revenue to grow over 60 per cent to Rs 40 crore this fiscal.

The city-based company will also open two large multi-user fulfilment centres (FCs) in Bangalore and Kolkata, along with seven smaller centres in other parts of the country to help e-commerce firms ensure faster and more efficient delivery.

Founded in 2009, Holisol currently provides back-end logistics to e-commerce players like Jabong, fabfurnish.com, freecultr.com and officeyes.com, among others.

"Presently, we are running eight FCs servicing multiple clients. But, we are seeing a rapid growth in online shopping, which in turn is leading to e-commerce firms feeling the need to further expand logistics and back-end operations," Holisol co-founder Rahul Dogar told PTI.

Holisol helps e-commerce firms channelise and streamline their back-end operations to deliver products to the consumer in the given time, he added.

"Our value proposition for the customer is to work like their extended logistics team. We design-implement-manage and have capability to help design the logistics set-up, take responsibility for implementation and finally manage the daily operations," he said.

At present, the company has a total warehousing space of 4.5 lakh sq ft handling 40,000 orders on a daily basis, Dogar said.

Apart from 75 employees on its payrolls, Holisol also has 1,500 people working at its FCs on a contractual basis.

"There is an increasing demand for firms like ours with e-commerce firms increasingly adopting same day delivery format. We will open two large FCs in Bangalore and Kolkata this year. We already have 2 large ones running in Delhi and Mumbai," Dogar said.

Besides, the firm will also set up seven smaller (7,000- 10,000 sq ft area) FCs to expand its footprint in tier II and III cities like Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Vishakhapatnam and Chandigarh, he added.

"In the 2013-14 fiscal, we clocked a turnover of Rs 24 crore and for this fiscal, based on the growth projects, we expect to reach Rs 40 crore," he said.

The opportunity in back-end logistics for online shopping segment is estimated to be about Rs 3,500-4,000 crore, a major part of which is last mile delivery, Dogar said.